Theology in Mark and Q:Abbaand “Father” in Context

Abstract

In the last twenty years, Joachim Jeremias's interpretation of the wordabbahas become a focus of theologies that attempt to base themselves on the Jesus of history. In the face of feminist critiques of the use of “father” for God, Robert Hamerton-Kelly reiterated Jeremias's case for Jesus' supposedly unique usage of bothabbaand “father,” asserting its revelatory status and its freedom from and even opposition to patriarchy. Some feminist scholars have attempted to incorporate Hamerton-Kelly's description of Jesus' use ofabbainto feminist understandings of God, based on reconstructions of Jesus' teaching.